The disclosure relates generally to a pad assembly and more particularly to a floor polishing or grinding pad with a multilayer reinforcement.
It is known to use fibrous pads for polishing and grinding floors within industrial or commercial buildings. Such polishing or grinding pads are ideally suited for use on concrete, terrazzo, and natural (e.g., marble), engineered and composite stone floors. Examples of such pads and the powered machines used to rotate such can be found in the following U.S. patent publication numbers: 2011/0300784 entitled “Flexible and Interchangeable Multi-Head Floor Polishing Disk Assemby” which was invented by Tchakarov et al. and published on Dec. 8, 2011; 2017/0361423 entitled “Polishing or Grinding Pad Assembly” which was invented by Tchakarov and published on Dec. 21, 2017; and 2017/0361414 entitled “Polishing or Grinding Pad Assembly” which was invented by Tchakarov and published on Dec. 21, 2017. All of these patent publications are incorporated by reference herein. While these prior constructions are significant improvements in the industry, improved floor polishing and grinding performance, and improved durability of the pad assembly are still desired.
In accordance with the present invention, a polishing or grinding pad with a multilayer reinforcement is provided. In one aspect, a floor polishing or grinding pad assembly employs a flexible pad, at least two reinforcement layers or rings with different characteristics, and multiple floor-contacting tools such as abrasive disks. In another aspect, a workpiece polishing or grinding pad assembly includes a flexible and rotatable pad, a polymeric reinforcement layer coupled to the pad and a metallic reinforcement layer to which are coupled abrasive tools. In yet another aspect, a floor-facing reinforcement is more flexible than a pad-facing reinforcement which is more rigid. A further aspect employs scallops or recesses on an outer periphery of a reinforcement ring. A method of making and using a flexible pad, employing a multilayer reinforcement with multiple polishing or grinding tools attached thereto, is also presented.
The present pad assembly is advantageous over traditional devices. For example, the scallops or recesses of the metallic or floor-facing reinforcement used in the present pad assembly advantageously creates a clearance to the floor during pad and reinforcement flexure, thereby reducing contact, and thus wear, of the floor-facing reinforcement when polishing or grinding; this angular clearance increases the assembly's useful life and deters floor-scraping while providing consistency of polishing or grinding. Furthermore, the present pad assembly advantageously allows greater floor contact with the multiple abrasive tools due to the metallic reinforcement flexing due to floor imperfections, yet reduces premature reinforcement wear by providing additional rigidity due to the addition of the less expensive polymeric reinforcement, which is expected to reduce downward flexure of the metal reinforcement between the tools. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will be readily understood from the following description, claims and appended drawings.